LETTER: President enslaved to chaos of Iraq War

To the editor:
   
Tacked to my kitchen bulletin board is a copy of a letter to an editor printed on Sept. 10, 2002 — more than six months before U.S. leaders mired our country in the seemingly endless horrors of unnecessary war.
   The letter from the Rev. Patrick Connor of Bordentown City quoted wise words of Winston Churchill:
   "Never, never, never believe that any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.
   "The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events . . . weak, incompetent or arrogant commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations — all take their seat at the (war) council board."
   Our current leader, who does not read newspapers — nor history, apparently — has certainly brought "malignant fortune" to the United States — the lowest point in our history as the world’s most hated country.
   Pray for us, Father Connor.
Barbara Thomsen

Cranbury